(PCM) There has recently been some big news for Slayer! The band made a surprise appearance at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles by taking the stage and performing a brand new song to the capacity crowd. Slayer kicked off the show with a three song set that included the global premiere of “Implode,” the band’s first new studio recording in five years.

Recorded earlier this month at Henson Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Terry Date and co-produced by Greg Fidelman, “Implode” is now available as a free download as a “thank you” to the band’s fans for their continued support. Or, as Kerry King put it, “you have been waiting for us, now we are delivering for you.” Registered members of Slayer’s fan club were sent an email right around midnight giving them the link to the song and a chance to hear it before it was made public. “Implode” can now be downloaded at www.slayer.net.

The two-time Grammy award winning band are slated to begin recording a new album with a release date tentatively set for early 2015. The album will make Slayer history as it will be released on Nuclear Blast Records through the band’s own label imprint, closing out a 28-year relationship with Rick Rubin and American Recordings. No name for the imprint has been decided on yet.

“Rick has played a huge role in our career, we’ve made some great albums with him,” said Slayer’s Tom Araya. “But today is a new day, record companies don’t play the kind of role they once did, and we really like the idea of going out on our own, connecting directly with our fans, and Nuclear Blast is fired up about taking on that challenge with us.”

All future recordings on the band’s label imprint will be released worldwide exclusively through Nuclear Blast.

“I was a teenage rebel when ‘Show No Mercy’ came out,” said Markus Staiger, owner of Nuclear Blast, “and I identified with that record. It was the most extreme, aggressive thing at the time. They were then and still are the most brutal metal band on the planet! I really cannot express how proud I am that we are able to work with Slayer to join the Nuclear Blast family. We are ready for that next record and, I’m sure it will go into metal history!”

Slayer – Tom Araya/vocals, bass, Kerry King/guitar, drummer Paul Bostaph, and Gary Holt who continues to stand in for the band’s founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman – will spend the next few months on the road touring major North American and European festivals as well as headlining dates, sharing the stages with Metallica, Iron Maiden and more, but is expected to be back in the studio in the fall to record the rest of the new album.